


Birthday Girl

by ladyjax



Category: Planetary - Warren Ellis
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Gen, Post-Series, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyjax/pseuds/ladyjax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the occasion of Jakita Wagner's birthday, a simple question has a not so simple answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Satchelfoot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Satchelfoot/gifts).



**2006 - The Home of Ambrose Chase  
**

  
The birthday cake was a lurid pink and white monstrosity with a single candle burning in the middle. It was as if someone had taken the most obnoxious shade of pink and slathered it on with all the skill of a child already high on sugar.

  
Jakita looked at the cake and then at her teammates. Drums sat at her right and at least had the grace to look slightly afraid of what she might do. The nervous _tap tap tap_ of his pen against the chair arm was more annoying than usual. The two grinning fools sitting at her left and at the end of the table respectively were another matter entirely.

  
She estimated that she had a one in ten chance of reaching out and slapping either of them straight into next week. Possibly half that if either man used his respective power but Jakita was willing to take a shot at it.

  
“Are you gonna blow out your candle, Jakita?”

  
Angela’s softly voiced question turned Jakita’s thoughts away from mayhem. Ambrose’s daughter was carefully tucked into her father’s arms, her head resting on his chest. Jakita smiled, feeling her annoyance bleed away.

  
“I am,” Jakita said. She leaned forward conspiratorially. “Want to help?”

  
The little girl nodded eagerly, shifting just enough so she wouldn’t cause her father any discomfort. Jakita pushed the cake close to her then counted off.

  
“One, two, three and blow!”

  
Twin puffs blew out the candle. One little girl soft, the other tightly restrained lest the cake get blown off the table.

  
Elijah clapped slowly, a smile teasing at the edges of his mouth. “And how old is the birthday girl today?”

  
Jakita turned her head just enough so it was hidden from Angela and mouthed, _I hate you, old man_.

  
Elijah Snow, Planetary’s Fourth Man and Century Baby, just threw back his head and laughed.

  
**

**198? - Planetary Foundation Offices  
**

  
“What is it you do here again?”

  
Jakita followed Elijah through the nondescript reception area, taking everything in with the air of someone who had something else better to do. Not that she did. Elijah had rescued her from a mind numbing day at another office where she’d been temping for the past month.  There was little that kept Jakta's attention very long.  Her agent at the temping service almost didn't send her on her latest assignment after Jakita threatened to tie her previous supervisor into a knot when he got a little handsy.  

  
“To answer your question," Elijah threw over his shoulder, breaking into her reverie, "what we do, what we’re going to be doing, is archaeology.”  He turned left and walked through a door at the end of the hallway with Jakita hard on his heels. 

  
“Which I know nothing about,” Jakita shot back. She would have said more but for a fist heading right for her face as she walked through the door. Jakita side stepped, caught it, and then twisted the arm it was attached to, shoving her attacker backward and out of her way. “And what the hell was that?” she asked peevishly, pointing at the man lying on the floor cradling his arm.

  
“You're wasting your life.” Elijah began.  Jakita snorted derisively.

  
“And water is wet. Tell me something I don’t know,” she shot back. “Although if you’re going to keep having guys attack me that’s going to get old very fast.”

  
Elijah sat on the edge of the single desk in the room and folded his arms over his chest. “You,” he barked, nodding at Jakita’s attacker. “She break your arm?”

  
The man nodded, “Yes sir. You warned me that she was strong but I didn't anticipate...” He stopped when Elijah held up his hand.

  
“That’s pretty obvious. Go to medical, get yourself looked at.”

  
Jakita watched him go then turned back to Elijah, hands on her hips. “I’m waiting.”

  
Elijah shook his head. “Always knew you were going to be special,” he said.

  
Jakita rubbed her temple. “I could be sitting at my desk right now, not listening to you. You know that, right? “

  
“You could also be contemplating murder for all I know but I think I have a better offer,” Elijah said. He pointed at a bookcase on the wall furthest from the desk. “Grab one of the books over there on that top shelf.”

  
She sighed and walked over to the bookcase, pulling down one of the books Elijah had indicated. Jakita turned it over in her hands and read the cover:

  
**Planetary Guide: 1945**   


  
“Take it home, read it and get back to me,” Elijah said. “If you’re not interested after that, I’ll never ask you here again.”

  
Jakita looked at the book, then at Elijah. “What aren't you telling me?” she asked suspiciously. 

  
“Lots," Elijah replied.  "That's the point.”  He got up from the desk and walked to the wall of windows behind it that overlooked Central Park.  Jakita joined him.  From their vantage point, people were tiny figures scurrying to and fro about the edges of the park like ants.

"Some of what I'm talking about is in that book. There's things out there, Jakita, that you've never even dreamed of.  I've seen many of them.  I'm offering you the opportunity to see them for yourself.  Besides, I need someone like you.  And you need this."  

Jakita hefted the book in her hand.  "Is this going to be the nature of our relationship if I join up?  I ask questions. You play inscrutable sage?" she asked grumpily.  "Because if that's the case, I could go back to the office."

Elijah shrugged.  "You could.  But you won't."

  
“I always wondered why my parents liked you, Elijah.”

  
“It’s my sterling personality,” Elijah replied with a grin.

  
She was back in office two days later. Elijah sat behind his desk, looking at her look at him.

  
“Well?”

  
“I want to read through the rest of the guides.”

  
“You’re interested?”

  
"You know I am. There’s no need to gloat.”

**

**199? - The Grand Canyon**

"Jakita!"

  
Elijah's shout through her transceiver made Jakita grit her teeth in annoyance.  "Kind of busy here," she grunted. She grappled with the heavy beast beneath her, the armored hide poking into her midsection as it tried to buck her off it's back.

 

"What do you need?" Ambrose asked calmly.

 

"For both of you to shut up and let me work!" Jakita shouted back.  She shimmed up the rhino's back and saw the tiny control box at the back of it's skull which had been placed there by an honest to God mad scientist.  


 "Hrrrgah!" She channeled her frustration into her fist, smashing the box in one blow.

 

One last buck and she was flying through the air, flipping at the last minute to land neatly in a crouch just as Ambrose and Elijah came running up.

  
The rhino trotted back and forth, shaking its head, brains scrambled.  "The clean up crew is about right behind us," Ambrose said.  "Let's get this wrapped up."

 

Jakita sprang forward and kicked, her foot catching the rhino midsection and sending it in a high arc that quickly flew out of sight. She blew out a breath and turned back to her teammates.  "What?" she asked.  "It was there, the canyon was there."

 

"And your first thought was to kick it," Elijah said dubiously.  Ambrose snickered.  Jakita shrugged.

 

"Tell me it didn't occur to you."

**

  
 **2006**

  
“You didn’t answer, Mr. Snow’s question, Jakita.”

  
“Hmm?”

  
Angela bit another piece of cake. “He asked you how old you were.”

  
Ambrose jostled his daughter affectionately. “Some questions don’t need answering, Angie girl.”

  
“But Papa…”

 

Jakita waved a hand at the pair.  "It's okay, Ambrose.  Answering questions is what we're all about right?"

 

"It is at that," Ambrose replied, tickling Angela's side until she giggled.  "You just have to ask the right ones."

 

Jakita Wagner had been just shy of fifty five years old when she joined Planetary.  In the years since, she'd walked the earth, protecting its secrets.  The Four had nearly destroyed them, had take Elijah, had almost killed Ambrose.  

  
She'd seen the descendants of the survivors of Space City Zero pilot an impossible shift ship across the Bleed, fought monsters and seen angels fly to the edge of their galaxy.  There were always going to be questions to be answered. Jakita's own life was proof of that.

 

"I'm old enough, Angela," Jakita said.  "And one day, you will be too."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't sure what to write for this and this is what came. I hope it pleases.


End file.
